4 replies to this topic

[hoyoku]

Hi there... next week i will be presenting my mass and energy balances to my lecturers. This is my final year design project to design a chemical plant. If you were the lecturers, what would you expect from me from my presentation? What would you like to see, and what would impress you? And somemore, mass and energy balances are all values and datas, how do I make it more interesting and presentable? Would you like to see tables full of values in presentation? I need ideas.. anyone could give me ideas and tips on how to present mass and energy balances like an engineer. Thanks alot. Need any more info, pls do not hesitate to ask me.

Regards,
Joseph

[djack77494]

Joseph,
This is a hard one to answer, since I know nothing of your background or what the expectations of your particular school and faculty might be. I would strive for good appearance with easy-to-discern and easy-to-locate information. You need to identify each key stream, the important conditions; e.g. temperature and pressure, the phase, total mass flowrate, some breakdown of the phases (if multiphase), and either concentrations or flowrates of the important components in the streams. You should also consider important properties - perhaps densities, viscosities, molecular weights, etc. Much of this is highly dependent on the nature of your process. I like to think of a mass & energy balance as being like a "sheet #2" of your process flow diagram. Together, they provide a fairly complete depiction of what occurs in the process; they supplement one another. Each stream in your balance should have a corresponding numbered stream on your PFD. I would think that if your lecturers could look at the PFD and the mass & energy balances and see how this defines the design basis, they should be satisfied. If your chemical plant is part of a larger complex, really knock their socks off by starting with a block flow diagram of the entire complex. This shows where your plant fits into the complex, defining the source of the feeds and the destination of the products. If possible, try to somehow work in the specifications of the feeds and products also.
Good luck,
Doug

[JEBradley]

Just a thought - use a Sankey Diagram.

Id keep facts and figures to a minimum in a presentation - that is stuff for a report.
However - as its a design project and you'll be presenting to professors - they're the kind of people who may like to be fed this stuff.

[hoyoku]

Thanks Doug..

May I know what is a sankey diagram? The presentation this time involves engineers from the industry. So I basically do not know what are they expecting.. Do you think showing the calculations is a good idea?

Joseph

[JEBradley]

sankey diagram is a graphical representation of mass flows where the thickness of the lines represents the amount of flow.

Id look on wikipedia - theres a picture of one there which will explain all.

If the calculation is concise and essential to prove a point then include it, but don't get drawn into flooding the audience with complex maths as they'll get bored. They probably wont be able to follow the maths that easily either.